Sock Knitting and Beyond

Sock Summit was amazing.  I’m not sure I can adequately contain all of the wonderfulness that happened in one post, but I’ll do my best to hit some of my personal highlights.

Day 1:

-Meeting knitters (from Norman OK) at the DFW airport lounge while waiting for flight to Portland, arriving in Portland. 

- Finishing my anklets on the flight to Portland (empty needles!)

- Taking the Max from the airport to the convention center and seeing the Sock Summit sign. 

- Registering for Sock Summit and then meeting knitters from Iowa as soon as I arrived.   - Meeting my roommate Christine (aka mapleweave) and festering over with excitement.

Day 2:

-         Franklin in a kilt

-         Advanced Top down Sock Design: Going off the Grid with Cookie A.  (fantastic - had an “aha” moment so big my light bulb needed it’s own marquee

-         Lunch with the Cat Knits group from Ravelry, we went to the farmers market at Lloyds square and I had some excellent homemade chicken soup and really good whole grain bread

-         My initial foray into the market, I got some nice yarn and Franklin enabled me into buying an antique knitting gauge

-         Opening reception, what can I say except a great end to a good long day?

Day 3:

-         Taking the Max to Voodoo donuts (bacon maple bar) for a little early morning sugar rush, a quick dash to Stumptown coffee for some complimentary coffee and we were good for the rest of the morning.

-         Tina’s lecture on color and dyeing yarn

-         Lunch at Burgerville with a great throng and in close proximity to Cookie A and Janel Laidman’s group

-         Running into Jeny Staiman (“the” Jeny) at Starbucks and discovering Jeny’s Surprising Sweet Demeanor

-     Janel Laidman's fabulous stranded knitting class & making a cute mini-sock

-         Dinner with Lisa (aka: meanestmommy) my Des Moines connection

-         The 80s sock hop, at which I may have danced a little

Day 4: 

-         Knitting Like Crazy meetup with Jen, one of the nicest designer/knitters I know and architect of August current Mystery Sock Knit-along

-         A quick tour of the market to locate the mysterious “tardis” yarn for someone I love, and um, I might have bought a pair of shoes (red maryjane clogs, squee)

-         Sock Yarn stories with the delightful Clara Parks

-         Solo Adventure downtown to the Saturday Market, Powell’s books and Pioneer Square, I ate some delicious gyros salad, saw lots of books (bought one) and soaked up the Portland atmosphere

-         A little event I like to call “dancing with yarn”

-         Dinner with a random group of knitters from Boston, NY and Seattle (because you don’t need to eat alone when knitters are near)

-         The Happy Knits After party (and winning a cool door prize), meeting Kristine from AVFKW, her partner Adrienne and her really cool Mom

-         Desert at the food carts (cinnamon and sugar crepe, yum!)

Day 5:

-         Fleece to Foot challenge

-         Lunch at Burgerville with Cookie A and a few other knitters

-         A final tour of the market for last minute shopping

-         A final good bye and Big Thank YOU to Stephanie, Tina and ST2 for a lovely event

-         Dinner with the “coming alone” group (including the fellow Iowegans I met on day 1) at Noodles and Co, followed by Mio Gelato for yummy dessert  

-         Suitcase tetris to make sure all of my goodies made it home

In general I would have to say, that it was a good experience, I got to meet and talk to so many different knitters, both “famous” and regular and I felt completely in my element.  I hope that if you ever aspire to go to sock summit, that you start planning now, so I can see you there in 2013!

There are too many pictures to choose from, so I made up a slide show, enjoy: 

Happy Knitting

Nana